OT: who pays for the wedding?

I've been thinking about weddings lately. My brother just got married in April, and my SO and I have been talking about marriage.

In my family, it's tradition that the bride's parents and the groom's parents split the cost of the wedding.

Then, I always thought if one side of the family wasn't around, or couldn't afford their half, the bride and groom would pay that half instead.

I'm just curious, how did you pay for your wedding? If you're not married yet, how do you plan on paying for it? I'm not sure if it's a culture thing or not, so I would love to hear about other family traditions.

I paid for my entire wedding myself. My parents couldn't afford it and my husband's parents believed it was the bride's family's responsibility. In today's world, I wouldn't expect anyone else to pay. If they offer to help, great. If they don't, don't plan on it.

I was planning my wedding before I got pregnant so it's postponed until next year. My mom paid for a big chunk and my dress, my MIL was paying for random things that she was helping with, some decorations, things like that.
BUT now for the baby shower, MIL is paying for everything, my mom taking care of the food. We all have a good relationship so it wasn't something we really discussed, it just happened.

Traditionally the bride's parents pay for the wedding & groom's do the rehersal dinner. Thats how our wedding was paid for. My inlaws also offered to tip all the help at the end (like th dj, photographer etc.) and pick up random odds and ends along the way.

We also paid for it by ourselves. I don't understand the tradition of parents paying for weddings. Personally, I think if we were old enough, and mature enough to get married, we can take on the financial responsibility of paying for our own celebration.

Besides that, since we paid for it, we didn't feel like we had to listen to anyone's "suggestions." Lol

I planned on paying for it by myself, but my sisters have other ideas. I raised them and paid for their college and bills until they both got on their feet, so they explained its their way of paying me back. So they are going to help me out. They want something far more 'spectacular' than I had in mind so I'm letting them go with what they want. Neither of them plans on ever getting married do this is it for them lol.

My family paid for our wedding. However, I carefully budgeted it so it was less than $5k for everything and it was a nice, decent sized wedding. I paid for my own dress, I wanted a particular dress that was $600, and I thought it better I pay for it because of the price. My in laws did not pay for anything; however, they had to fly here from Japan, which easily exceeded the wedding cost just for the plane tickets, which is why I didn't ask them to pay for the wedding, I was simply happy they would come.

However, I think if the situation had been different, I would have expected the cost to be split. I don't generally agree that it's the sole burden of the bride's family. And I certainly think the couple should pay for some things themselves like I did. If I'd have had a more extravagent wedding I'd have paid for more myself, but my father was pretty insistent, and I'm the only daughter, and still to this day the only one likely to have an actual wedding like that. (My oldest brother is still a bachelor and not interested at almost 35, and my middle brother hops from one girl to the next (sometimes even quickie marrying the girls ugh).)

Seeing as that it was pretty important to my Dad, and he passed away a year ago, I'm glad he got to see his little girl get married and have that big family event and feel like he'd done his fatherly duty, since he was very traditional and did in fact feel very strongly about it. He wouldn't even accept money to help pay for the reception from my in-laws.

Edit: I should add, I was 20 when I got married. If you are older and established, different story. ;)